A cauldron of bubbling broth
When the founders of Santa Cruz’s Kitchen Witch Bone Broth finished simmering their first batch of meaty juice together last year, they looked at each other with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. The beef feet they had loaded into a pot a day earlier, hooves and all, had dissolved completely.
That’s a good thing. Organic melted knuckles, chicken feet and the like that result in a gelatin-rich concoction are indications of an enviable bone broth. Bone brothers consider the protein-rich beverage the next superfood, like fermented foods, kale and quinoa.
Magali Brecke and Rhiannon Henry had been cooking small batches of the broth for several years while working on traditional Chinese medicine degrees at Five Branches University in Santa Cruz. When Missy Woolstenhulme joined the fray, the trio secured cooking space through Wastonville’s El Pajaro Commercial Kitchen Incubator Program and started jarring and selling broth over the table.
Their brew is in such high demand that they recently exceeded a Barnraiser crowdfunding goal by more than $4,000 and won a Whole Foods Local Producers Grant, together raising more than $24,000.
To make a superior bone broth, a high ratio of bones to water is essential. Kitchen Witch uses meaty bones, knuckles and other less-used, collagen-rich parts from pasture-raised chicken and beef. “It’s a big revival, back to the whole animal,” says Brecke. It’s that range that produces the desired consistency.
Another difference between bone broth and regular broth is time. It’s the lengthy simmer that cooks down cartilage and bones to create richness and body. “You can make a broth in four hours,” says Woolstenhulme. “A bone broth traditionally is 24 hours-plus.”
Kitchen Witch Bone Broth sells 20-ounce mason jars of the broth in four flavors — beef, chicken, fish and vegetable — for $12.99 to $20. Customers can subscribe to a weekly e-mail newsletter that includes original broth recipes, such as a quick aromatic breakfast ramen.